Wheel trenching machine



July 1947. G. A. VAUGHN WHEEL TRENCHING MACHINE s Sheets- Sheet 1 FiledJuly 23, 1943 Ba s y 1947. G. A. VAU GHN 2,423,132

' WHEEL: TRENCHING MACHINE Filed July 2:5, 1945 s Sheets-Sheet 2 July 1,1947. G. A. VAUGHN WHEEL TRENCHING MACHINE Filed July 25, 1943 3Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented July 1, 1947 UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE WHEELTnENoHINe MACHINE George A. Vaughn, Newton, Iowa, assignor to TheParsons Company, Newton, Iowa, a corporation Application July '23, 1943,Serial No. $35,874 2 Claims (01. 37---9"7) '1 Th s nve tio ncrtains tothe. t of w vating machines and particularly to those types 1 s h achnes d signed r the pu p se of excavating trenches for pipe line layingor other PU PO C 'Ihe invention involves improvements in. trenchir gmachines of the class utilizing in conjunction with a' supportingtraction body an excavating Wheel trenching unit.

In wheel trenching machines it is necessary to provide means for lowerinthe excavating wheel unit to cause the same to engage with the earth tobe excavated as the machine progresses forwardly. The wheel unit must ofcourse be elevated into an inactive or non-operating position, moreover,when the machine is being moved from place to place while the excavatingoperation is not being performed.

The improvements in this invention reside primarily in providing novelsupporting meansfor the wheel unit for carrying the same upon theportable traction body of the machine and for driving the wheelrotatively during its excavat ing operation. Necessarily, means of thelast mentioned type must involve driving connections between a primemover on the traction body and the excavating wheel itself; By reason ofthe employment of such driving means, complicated connections involvingthe supporting means between the traction body and the wheel haveheretoiore been used and a primary object of the invention has been tosimplify this portion of the machine.

To the above end of the special objective of the invention 1 havedesigned driving means for the e cava ing Wheel of my proposed machinein which the relation of the driving parts is main tained withoutrequirement of change or adjustment of the parts themselves incident tothe raising and lowering of the driving wheel, raising when desired toelevate the wheel for traveling purposes and lowering when the Wheel isfed to the ground to be excavated and held at a lowered adjustment formaking the trench desired oi" a certain depth.

More specifically speaking, in the carrying out of my invention I haveprovided a driving unit intermediate the prime mover or motor of thetraction body of the machine and the excavfating wheel, which drivingunit includes supporting arms that are pivotally carried upon thetraction base, extend to, and are ldrivably connected to the excavatingwheel, which arm contain or carry relatively fixed driving parts fortransmitt ps the iving a ti n of h r m mo er to 20 the excavating wheel..The said supportin and driving arms are so mounted and arrangedrelatively' to the prime mover and the excavating wheel that they'shiftpivotally incident to the raising and lowering of the said wheel for thepurposes previously mentioned and carry with them the driving partsassociated with th driving unit withoutany variation in the relativedisposition or operating positions of the driving parts cf he un Anotherfeature of the invention lies in the novel provision made incident tothe employment of an overload clutch device operating in conjunctionwith diiferential drive "gearing for the excavating wheel, forpermittingslippage of the driving gear members in the event of stallingof the excavating Wheel when it strikes an obstruction, thereby to avoidpossibility of breakage of the excavating buckets or other parts of theexcavating unit itself.

A pref rred em od m nt f e n iqn i lustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in h h? Figure 1 is a side elevation of a wheel trenchingmachine embodying my invention, dottedlines showing certain of the partsof the supporting frame of the excavating wheel as when elevated tocarry the wheel to its inactive or nomexcavat- 'n posi ion- 1 Figure 2is a horizontal sectional View taken a cut on he ine 27 f Figure 1, r nin ou clearly the construction of the driving unit and connectionsthereof to the excavating Wheel and to the prime mover, sprocket chainsbeing broken away to show coacting gears clearly.

Figure 3 is a side view of one of the excavating arm Figure 4 is a planview of one of said arms as sho n F r 31 Figure 5 is a verticalsectional view through one of the dri ing arms, aken a r g an les to theviews of Figures 3 and 4.

Figure .6 is a side view of the slip clutch unit.

Figure 7 is a side view of the differential drive shaft arm for the slipor safety clutch.

Figure 8 is an enlarged view of details or the conveyor drivinggearing."

Describing the invention in detail and referring to Figure 1 of thedrawings, A enerals designates the traction or supporting body of themachine which may involve a cab or housing structure conventional to theart, said supporting body being'carried upon a suitable traction baseframe B that is equipped with the cus cma y crawlers or endless tractionbelts C by which the travel movement of the machine is effected.

Any suitable drive gearing may be provided to operate the traction beltsC from the engine or motor I on or in the body structure A. The bodystructure A includes a suitable supporting framework including theA-frame members 2 at one end and other frame members 3, ii, and 5, allof which may be conventional and to the specific construction of which Ido not wish to be limited.

The excavating unit of the machine comprises largely a supporting framemade up of the curved angle bars 6, the straight horizontal channels I,vertical channels 8, and vertical angle bars 9 connected at their lowerends by horizontal angle bars If The excavator supporting frame carriesat different portions thereof the supporting and guiding wheels II whichare disposed in pairs, the wheels of each pair spaced apart and engagingthe circular frame members I2 that comprise the sides of the excavatorwheel generally designated at D. The side circular frame members l2 areconnected by the transverse excavating buckets I3 that are located atintervals around the periphery of the Wheel and removably attached tothe members I2 as desired. The buckets I 3 are of conventionalconstruction equipped with digging teeth It preferably.

Carried by a cross shaft I5 near the front portions of the curved bars 5of the excavating wheel supporting frame are spaced sheaves I6, theshaft I5 being supported in suitable brackets I? attached to the saidframe members 6. Around the sheaves ll operate spaced cable hoisting andlowering parts designated I8, one end of each of the cable parts I 8leading to a drum I 9 supported on certain frame parts of the machinebody A by means of a shaft 20. Said shaft 28 therefore carries twodrums, one adjacent to each end thereof. In similar manner there areutilized hoisting cables 2| passing around sheaves 22 on a shaft 23supported on brackets 24 connected with the frame members 6 near therear portion thereof, which are adjacent to the body frame of themachine.

The cables 2I, two of which are employed, lead to a pair of drums 25 ona shaft 25 located adjacent to the shaft 20. The drum shafts 20 and 26may be driven by any suitable driving connections from the engine ormotor I, and under the control of suitable manual means the cables I8and 2| may be paid out from the drums I 9 and 25 respectivtely or woundupon said drums to lower and raise, respectively, the excavating Wheelunit. The cables I8 and 2I pass over suitable sheaves or guide pulleys21 mounted on a shaft 28 carried by the upper end of the A- frame 2.

The supporting frame for the excavating wheel D may be equipped alsowith vertical standards 29 supported directly by the channels I, bracedat their upper ends by the tie rods 30, said standards 29 carrying attheir lower ends a crumber 3| for cutting and leveling to proper contourthe base of the trench excavated by the excavating wheel. The crumber 3|is disposed at the rearmost portion of said Wheel and cleans up thebottom of the ditch or trench excavated, in the well known manner.

It is apparent from the foregoing that the excavating unit of themachine may be elevated and lowered by the instrumentalities abovedescribed, primarily the cables I8 and 2| and their operating drums I9and 25 respectively.

Describing now the driving unit between the motor I and the excavatingwheel, reference is made to Figures 1 and 2 in which it will be seenthat said unit comprises largely two spaced supporting arms 32. The arms32 are mounted by suitable bearing portions 33 surrounding bearingportions of a gear casing 34 carrying the differential shafts 35 and 3B.The gear casing 34 is mounted rigidly in supported relation to theengine I in the body of the machine, and the shafts 35 and 36 constituteaxis members carrying said arms 32. The shafts 35 and 36 are connectedby a conventional differential gear unit generally designated as at E inFigure 2.

The motor or engine I may be a conventional gas, Diesel, or otherengine, as seen in Figure 1, and the drive from said engine to thedifferential gear unit E will be controlled by the hand operated lever31 of conventional change speed gearing. As seen in Figure 2, a drivenshaft 38, variably driven under the control of the change speed gearingpreviously mentioned, is bevel-geared as at 39 to a countershaft 40,which shaft is spurgeared at; ll to another countershaft 62, the latterin turn bein spur-geared at 3 to a clutch shaft 34 carrying theshiftable clutch member 25 operable by the lever 46, seen in Figure 1,through the provision of yoke means engaging the groove of the clutchmember 45.

The clutch member 55 is splined to the shaft 12a and cooperates with theclutch member ll of a sprocket gear 48 on the same shaft Ml. Thesprocket gear 151 is connected by a sprocket chain 59 with a drivesprocket 53 forming a part of the differential gear unit E, and thechain 48 carries the drive from the engine to said unit, thereby tooperate the differential gear shafts 35 and 35 that support the arms 32.The shafts 35 and 35 are equipped with sprockets 5| and 52,respectively, and the sprockets are connected by sprocket or drivechains 53 to corresponding sprockets 5 3 on the excavator wheeloperating shafts 55. The shafts 55 constitute a connection between thearms 32,

Each of the sprocket gears 54 i carried by a hub 55 and each hub 56 inturn carries a wheel driving gear 51 the teeth of which en age internalteeth 58 on the circular frame or ring members I2 of the excavatingwheel unit. The hubs 55 are supported in bearings 9a on the digger frame9. Therefore, upon driving rotation of the sprockets 54 their drivingmovement is transmitted at greatly reduced speed to the member l2, inview of the large gear ratio of the gear rings or frame members I2 tothe small gear member 51'. Rotation of the excavating wheel D is thuseffected by the driving means described extending from the engine to theexcavating Wheel proper, and in its rotation the wheel unit is guided bythe supporting and guiding wheels I I previously referred to.

The driving sprocket 52 on the differential gear shaft 36 has a hubformed with a drum 59 cooperable with a slip or safety clutch member 68so that should the excavating bucket or buckets of the Wheel unit Dstrike an obstruction and stall the Wheel, the wheel may remainstationary whilst the driving parts of the differential gearing continueto operate without liability of breakage of the drive connections or theparts of the excavating wheel unit.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that by reason of themode of supporting or suspending the arms 32 in pivotal relation to theinner axis supporting means 36 and in pivotal relation to the outer axismeans 911, the driving unit comprising these arms and associated gearingdescribed may be raised and lowered incident to pivotal movement aboutthe axis at the member 34 without varying the length of the drivingsprocket connections 53 and as permitted by the shifting of the gearparts to which said chains are connected incident to the raising andlowering movement of the excavating wheel unit D by means of the cables59 and 21. The driving unit as peculiarly designed according to thisinvention, therefore, eliminates the necessity of providing specialtension devices for association with the drive chains 53 or the need forconstructing the drive units of articulating parts to compensate for thevariation in the position of the wheel unit D when elevated and lowered.In this manner the whole construction of the driving and sup portingmeans for the excavating wheel is simplified, the cost of manufacture ofthe machine is reduced, and the operation of the driving means for thewheel unit rendered highly efficient under actual conditions of use.

Up and down swinging of the arm unit 32-32, including associatedgearing, may be performed at will without disturbing the normal drivingrelation of these parts.

As seen in Figure 2 to 5, the arms 32 are made preferably of channelmetal members, and if desired a cover plate 32a may be detachablyapplied to each arm opposite to and enclosing the adjacent sprocket 54.

The slip or safety clutch unit includes the clutch member or band 60before mentioned, same surrounding the drum 59 and shown best in Figure6. A drive shaft arm 60a is keyed to the differential shaft 36 andequipped with lugs 69b to engage opposite abutment lugs 690 on therespective ends of the clutch band 60 whereby to control the drive fromthe differential unit to the shafts 36 and 35, This drive and slipclutch means works peculiarly. Assuming that the excavating machine isoperating with one half the power delivered to each side or ring 12 ofthe excavating wheel, if an obstruction is encountered which stops thewheel from rotating, the clutch 59 slips. The clutch 66, being on onlyone side of the differential, rotates at twice the speed with the sametorque as before. The slip clutch operates equally eflectively in eitherdirection.

The differential gear unit E operates similarly to that of an automobileexcept that instead of using a bevel gear mounted on the gear housing E,the housing is driven by the sprocket 59 secured to one end of thehousing and rotating the latter to cause it to drive through the bevelpinions of the unit.

The longer of the drive shaft parts 55 drives both one side of the wheelD and suitable bevel gears for operating the conveyor 65 that extendstransversely through the wheel D, and, as usual, receives and carriesoff the material dropping thereon from buckets l3, said materialdislodged by the cleaners 66. The shorter of th shafts 55 drives theother side of the wheel D through 6 a sleeve and gear fastened to theinner end of the shaft.

The conveyor driving bevel gears are denoted 66 in Figures 2 and theenlarged Figure 8 showing these details more fully. A clutch 61oppositely shiftable to engage gears 66 carrie the reversible drive fromthe shaft part 55 to the conveyor driving shaft 68, not fully shown.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a trench excavating machine, in combination, a portable body,traction supporting means therefor, a motor carried by the body, anexcavating wheel unit adjacent the body including an excavating wheel, asupporting frame on which said wheel unit is rotatively mounted, meanson the portable body connected to the said frame for raising andlowering the same and the wheel unit thereon, and driving means separatefrom the raising and lowering means and operated from the motorconnected to the excavating wheel for operating the latter, said drivingmeans including a differential gear unit comprising differential gearconnected shafts, and separate driving connections from the gear shaftsto opposite sides of the excavating wheel, said driving means includingarms pivotally connected to the body and pivotally connected at theirouter ends to the wheel supporting frame and arranged to support partsof the driving connections, said separate driving connections includinga two part shaft member that connects the arms to the wheel supportingframe, one part of the shaft member connected directly to one of thedifferential gear connected shafts, and the other part I REFERENCESCITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,084,887 Bennett June 22, 19371,553,833 Penote Sept. 15, 1925 1,714,306 George May 21, 1929 720,841Pawel Feb. 17, 1903 1,005,544 Henderson Oct. 10, 1911 1,541,198 'IeterJune 9, 1925 1,911,615 George May 30, 1933 584,323 Bunnell June 15, 1897

